Cathay Gold extending Gold cards for Amex Platinums with a challenge

As many already know, American Express had been giving Cathay Pacific Gold status (equivalent to OneWorld Sapphire, so BA Silver) to its UK Platinum cardholders as a “secret perk”. This was probably not publicized so that the relationship with British Airways wasn’t upset.
American Express stopped this added perk on March 15 this year, and as such the Gold cards have started expiring. However, I have had reports of some Cathay golds receiving an extra 6 months on their membership, together with a challenge to collect 30,000 qualifying miles to requalify for the following year, instead of the usual 60,000. I have received one myself now as well, so I decided to post about it. I do not know yet if this is going to be a rolling re-qualification incentive or if it is just for one year. Beware that many discounted economy fares on British Airways and Iberia (and other OneWorld partners) only earn 50% mileage, so depending on your travel pattern it might still be easier to qualify for BA Silver.
My guess is that this will be a permanent Amex Platinum perk for cardmembers who initially received the Cathay Gold for free, and that this change is probably because most of us (including me) were using the status to obtain perks on BA, but credit the points to Avios (and trying to reach silver before the Cathay Gold expired).